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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Section 1. Member 2. Subsection 1. a Digression on Anatomy.

Section 1. Member 2. Subsection 1. A digression on anatomy.

Before defining the disease of melancholy or discussing it further, I think it appropriate to make a brief digression on the anatomy of the body and the faculties of the soul, to make what follows easier to understand. Many difficult words will recur: myrache, hypochondria, haemorrhoids, imagination, reason, humours, vital, natural and animal spirits, nerves, veins, arteries, chyle and phlegm. Ordinary readers will not readily understand what these are, where they are situated or what purpose they serve.

Besides, this may encourage some people to examine this excellent subject more closely, investigate it further, and, with the royal prophet, praise God—for man is fearfully and wonderfully made, and intricately fashioned. These people have time and leisure enough, and know all about other worldly affairs: how to strike a good bargain, buy and sell, or choose and keep a fine hawk, hound or horse. Yet in matters concerning knowledge of themselves, they are completely ignorant and careless. They do not know what body and soul are, how they are joined, what parts and faculties they possess, or how a human being differs from a dog.

What could be more shameful and disgraceful, as Melanchthon rightly protests, than not knowing the structure and composition of one’s own body, especially when that knowledge contributes so much to preserving health and shaping conduct?

I have therefore made this brief digression to encourage them to study the subject: to read the extensive works of Galen, Bauhin, Plater, Vesalius, Falloppio, Laurentius, Remmelin and others who have written at length in Latin; or the recent work of some of our industrious countrymen in our own language, such as the translation of Columbus and the thirteen books of Microcosmographia.

Moreover, because Wecker, Melanchthon, Fernel, Fuchs and those lengthy treatises on the soul—or writers who have treated this subject more briefly—are not always readily available, let this summary suffice to give readers a small taste or an indication of the rest.

1571.The heading in the scan reads “Sect. 1. Memb. 1. Subsec. 4.” Its place in the work, the page’s running head “Memb. 2. Subf. 1,” and the following subsections identify it as Member 2, Subsection 1. The original column preserves the printed error; the modern heading corrects it.

1572.“Myrache” is an old anatomical term for the abdominal covering; “hypochondria” are the regions beneath the ribs. “Hemrods” can refer here to haemorrhoidal veins, named later in the subsection on veins. “Vulgar” means ordinary or unlearned readers. Burton is establishing the vocabulary of his inherited physiology, not offering a modern account of bodily function.

1574.The royal prophet is the psalmist David. Burton cites Psalm 139:13, but “fearfully and wonderfully made” and “curiously wrought” occur in verses 14–15. “Curiously” means intricately or skilfully. His contrast is between expertise in worldly pursuits and ignorance of one’s own body and soul.

1579.“Columbus” is Realdo Colombo. “History of man” probably means John Banister’s The Historie of Man (1578). Its title describes a compilation; in book 1, folio 14, Banister explicitly draws on both Vesalius and Colombo. This supports the identification without establishing Burton’s precise basis for calling it a translation. Crooke’s Microcosmographia (1615) names Bauhin and Laurentius among its chief sources.